For my last regular season recap, I get Cy-Young-to-be Jacob deGrom against will-he-make-the-postseason-roster Sean Newcomb. Sean pitched well for 5 innings, but he is in a no win position. If he pitches well, IWOTM, and if he pitches poorly he’s toast. If I were Newcomb’s agent, I’d point out that he matched the Cy Young winner on the scoreboard. But I’m not his agent.

So the Braves didn’t score for the first 8 innings because they were facing deGrom and the Mets didn’t score for the first 5 innings because they are the Mets. In the 6th, the Mets scored a run off Luke Jackson. He’ll make the playoff roster anyway. Jonny Venters pitched the 7th and Kyle Wright pitched the 8th, giving up a home run which landed near the Van Wyck Expressway to Michael Conforto and a more sedate homer to Dominic Smith. Neither Wright nor Conforto nor Smith will be on a playoff roster.

Ozzie Albies was deGrom’s 1000th career strikeout victim to end the 8th. At this point deGrom had hurled 110 pitches and the Mets gave the Braves a chance. All they had to do was score three runs in the 9th off Seth Lugo. That’s a lot of pressure! 4-3, K, F9. By my count that’s no runs. Tip your cap.

Of all the playoff teams, I think the Rockies are the ones I least want the Braves to face. It’s crazy that with 3 or 4 games left, depending on the team, the Braves are the only confirmed division winner in the NL.

It doesn’t bother me so much in the NL since the teams are fairly week, but the Yankees and A’s are close to 100 wins each and they’re going to get one game to decide if they’re a real playoff team. I don’t like that.

Great reference. 103 wins. And some team with 90 wins will get in this year and have a seat at the table. But if you configured that year’s teams to today’s divisional alignment, the Cardinals would have won the central with 87 wins, Giants the west with 103, Braves the east with 104, and the 97-win Phillies and 94-win Expos would be in the one-game. So it would have at least been a little more fair. Of course, I’m taking significant liberties by merging the eras.

It’s teams like the 1993 Braves that give me hope that an inferior team like ours can do something in the playoffs. That team had Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, a healthy Avery, Greg McMichael and his 2.06 ERA out of the pen, McGriff, Gant, Justice, career-year Blauser, and key guys like Otis and Deion. And they got bounced. Can someone older than I quickly answer why that team couldn’t make it through?

Dansby Swanson underwent an MRI in Atlanta today which revealed a partially torn ligament in his left hand. Swanson will undergo daily treatment in Atlanta for the remainder of the regular season. He will be re-evaluated next week.

Even a partially torn ligament in his hand would lead me to believe that he could very well be out into the playoffs. How quickly could that possibly heal? Lane Adams could be our first RH bat off the bench. Yikes.

Per 600 PAs, Culberson and Dansby have very similar WARs. To switch out Culberson for Dansby, in more ways than one, isn’t a big switch. Charlie will hit better, Dansby will field better. It’s the jump from Culberson on the bench to Ryan Flaherty, and thus making Adams the RHH bat and having no real PR threat that really hurts.

A mild/moderate sprain is technically a partially torn ligament, and it could be that. We just don’t know. If it’s that, maybe he makes it back, especially if we make the LCS. If it’s significantly torn, then yes, he’s probably done.

Also, I deeply hate wasting a precious postseason roster spot on a third catcher. It’s just so useless. Pinch-hit with the other catcher like you normally would and don’t worry about it. Having Culberson or whoever catch for a portion of one game really isn’t any worse than having Rene Rivera in the game IMO.

Yeah, the key is to have one of your utility guys be an “emergency catcher” who you literally never use at catcher, but can press into duty in case everybody gets the measles. Like Matt Diaz used to be.

@25 – I’ve never understood your obsession with Fried. He’s done well in some very low leverage situations over a small sample size of 31 innings and 5 starts. His 1.39 whip isn’t impressive. His 4.61 era and 1.45 whip over 66 AAA innings is even less impressive. I hope he is a huge star, but I don’t see it this year.

Sunday lineup alert! Freeman and Inciarte both resting, Flaherty and Duvall in the lineup. Apparently Duda is also resting a minor sore back, which is why Flaherty instead of him (and perhaps why Rio pinch-hit in the game-breaking situation the other night). At least Snit didn’t do the full Bobby Sunday lineup thing, which would’ve involved batting Duvall second and Flaherty third.

@33 Fried was originally a #1 pick and he still has more upside the farther he gets from TJS. The reason you haven’t seen better stats is the blisters and his stats are obscured by recovery time pitching. Also, he has sometimes not done well as a reliever. His AFL stats were Ace(TM) level. And he has flashed that several times in his starts.

Overall, he has just as fast a FB as Newk and much better control. Before the TJS, he was considered a TOR pitcher. I think he still has that potential.

Fried is going to be really good. Remember his start in St. Louis. That’s a good disciplined team. He had to deliver on that one. Go back and watch it if you can and tell me he’s not right up at the top with Sorotka. Touki is going to be good, too. This is not to take away from him.

Roger, I hope you’re right about Fried and I agree that if he fully recovers from TJ surgery he can be special. With injury concerns and shaky relief appearances, I’m just not sure I trust him this year in the playoffs.

“Julio Teheran finished the regular season with a .196 opponents average. That’s the lowest single-season mark in #Braves history for a qualifying pitcher, surpassing Greg Maddux’s .197 average against in 1995.”

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch